I haven't been on in a while because of a short but filled college semester. However I've been waiting for my whole family to be told before coming here and asking has anyone been to Republic of Macedonia? Does anyone have tips when it comes to moving to European countries from America?

I was there for 6 months when I was in the US Army as part of Operation Able Sentry and it was a dirty place. The impression I got was they hated each other, especially the Gypsies. It seemed like EVERYBODY hated the gypsies more than they hated other races/ethnic groups. I felt sorry for them. The two largest cities I visited frequently was Skopje and Kumanovo. Skopje was in far better shape than Kumanovo. I met a few nice girls there who I hung out with when I was able to go there. They gave me a tour of the place got to see a huge Soviet Anchor that was left there by a river that runs through the city, ate at a decent restaurant and was able to buy many music CDs for practically nothing. The city had its "clean" area and trashed areas.

Kumanovo was just dirty, but the people were nice to me. Some of my Soldiers would go there and hook up with the local women so there are probably some half American babies running around it now. I remember it having a large gypsy population on the outskirts. They pretty much kept to themselves and their children., unlike the Macedonian children. wouldn't run up to my HMMWV and beg for candy.

Smaller Towns in the country side weren't in the best of shape, but the people were very nice. While walking patrols with my guys we got invited into homes for tea and even though we couldn't communicate through language we could through pointing and smiles. I made sure we left them something like a case of our MRE's or bottled water. While my driver and I rode in between the observation posts I was responsible for we used to stop at little stores and buy cokes and talk to the folks. One place we stopped at the guys bought out different guns and we had a shooting contest with them.

There are still remnants of the cold war there. Under my main OP was a huge bunker. It was pitch black down there and we would explore it all the time. There were a few bunks in it, but really nothing else. It was just creepy.

I know the Serbs are touchy about their border. My patrols got into it a few times with them over their border, but no international incident came of it. Eventually the Serbs started placing minefields where we patrolled to discourage us from going near their border.

Out from the cities it is really a beautiful country, especially near the Bulgarian border. We went on an air mobile patrol there and once we jumped off the Blackhawk helicopter we looked around and it was sheer beauty. The clouds were low, green rolling hills,, just a serene quiet. For those of you who watched the NuBSG series, that scene at the end where Admiral Adama is sitting on that hill next to Roslin's grave, well that is what it was like up there. Very peaceful.

Over all Macedonia wasn't a bad deployment. It was dirty, but there were some nice areas and there is stuff to do and there are nice people there.

I was there for 6 months when I was in the US Army as part of Operation Able Sentry and it was a dirty place. The impression I got was they hated each other, especially the Gypsies. It seemed like EVERYBODY hated the gypsies more than they hated other races/ethnic groups. I felt sorry for them. The two largest cities I visited frequently was Skopje and Kumanovo. Skopje was in far better shape than Kumanovo. I met a few nice girls there who I hung out with when I was able to go there. They gave me a tour of the place got to see a huge Soviet Anchor that was left there by a river that runs through the city, ate at a decent restaurant and was able to buy many music CDs for practically nothing. The city had its "clean" area and trashed areas.

Kumanovo was just dirty, but the people were nice to me. Some of my Soldiers would go there and hook up with the local women so there are probably some half American babies running around it now. I remember it having a large gypsy population on the outskirts. They pretty much kept to themselves and their children., unlike the Macedonian children. wouldn't run up to my HMMWV and beg for candy.

Smaller Towns in the country side weren't in the best of shape, but the people were very nice. While walking patrols with my guys we got invited into homes for tea and even though we couldn't communicate through language we could through pointing and smiles. I made sure we left them something like a case of our MRE's or bottled water. While my driver and I rode in between the observation posts I was responsible for we used to stop at little stores and buy cokes and talk to the folks. One place we stopped at the guys bought out different guns and we had a shooting contest with them.

There are still remnants of the cold war there. Under my main OP was a huge bunker. It was pitch black down there and we would explore it all the time. There were a few bunks in it, but really nothing else. It was just creepy.

I know the Serbs are touchy about their border. My patrols got into it a few times with them over their border, but no international incident came of it. Eventually the Serbs started placing minefields where we patrolled to discourage us from going near their border.

Out from the cities it is really a beautiful country, especially near the Bulgarian border. We went on an air mobile patrol there and once we jumped off the Blackhawk helicopter we looked around and it was sheer beauty. The clouds were low, green rolling hills,, just a serene quiet. For those of you who watched the NuBSG series, that scene at the end where Admiral Adama is sitting on that hill next to Roslin's grave, well that is what it was like up there. Very peaceful.

Over all Macedonia wasn't a bad deployment. It was dirty, but there were some nice areas and there is stuff to do and there are nice people there.

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Thank you for sharing this with me, I appreciate the detail it helps me form a picture of what Macedonia looks like.

Hey no problem at all. I actually had fun there. Went to night clubs and partied with the folks and made the most of my 6 months there. Just be careful if you are out driving in the country side. There are packs of wild dogs that roam all over that place, especially up north near the Serbian border. They don't really mess with you, but we still stayed away from them.

Also it seems like everybody has a gun, even kids. I was out driving to an OP once and some 7 year old kid pulled out a pistol and aimed it at me. I drew mine and pointed it back at him and he ran off. I wasn't expecting that. Most of the homes I stopped in had guns in it like pistols and shotguns and AK-47s. The folks loved to show me their guns and wanted to hold our M4s and 9mm and SAWS. We would let them, after removing our ammo of course.

About the only real ugly part is a huge trash dump about 3 miles South of Kumanovo. It is horrible because it is huge stinks real bad. My main HQ OP was near it and we hated when the wind blew north and we could smell it. The saddest thing about it is there were hundreds of people sifting through all that trash looking for whatever. Most of them look sickly. I don't know if they had jaundice or not, but many of them had yellow eyeballs and they had babies with them and young kids and all they would do all day is sift through the trash and fight with the dogs over food scraps. It was very pitiful.

Hey no problem at all. I actually had fun there. Went to night clubs and partied with the folks and made the most of my 6 months there. Just be careful if you are out driving in the country side. There are packs of wild dogs that roam all over that place, especially up north near the Serbian border. They don't really mess with you, but we still stayed away from them.

Also it seems like everybody has a gun, even kids. I was out driving to an OP once and some 7 year old kid pulled out a pistol and aimed it at me. I drew mine and pointed it back at him and he ran off. I wasn't expecting that. Most of the homes I stopped in had guns in it like pistols and shotguns and AK-47s. The folks loved to show me their guns and wanted to hold our M4s and 9mm and SAWS. We would let them, after removing our ammo of course.

About the only real ugly part is a huge trash dump about 3 miles South of Kumanovo. It is horrible because it is huge stinks real bad. My main HQ OP was near it and we hated when the wind blew north and we could smell it. The saddest thing about it is there were hundreds of people sifting through all that trash looking for whatever. Most of them look sickly. I don't know if they had jaundice or not, but many of them had yellow eyeballs and they had babies with them and young kids and all they would do all day is sift through the trash and fight with the dogs over food scraps. It was very pitiful.

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Yeah I had read up on gun laws in Macedonia and found that pretty much everyone carries. I was looking for hunting laws but couldn't find those.

How exactly can they say English when the last realtive to reside in one of those countires was several generations ago.

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It's a connection to our past. What happened to our families before they came to America influenced what happened to them when they got here. Many stayed in ethnic enclaves for generations. But more than anything else, I think when we say we're Irish, or Italian, or German, or whatever, everyone understands that we really mean Irish-American, Italian-American, etc. It's just implied.

Probably analogous to someone from Europe not being able to ramble off all 50 states.

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But we sure have heard of them all.

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I talked someone here in the states yesterday, mentioned I would be traveling to Bismarck and Fargo for work stuff next week.

Where?

You know, those two cities in North Dakota.

Never heard of it.

I take it he doesn't get out much.

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Some Americans, oddly, can't name all the states. However, I'd still argue it's far more important to name a sovereign nation than a state. While I can name all American states (and all Canadian Provinces), but I can't name all Mexican states, French Departments, or Italian regions. I don't think knowing those is equivalent to knowing a country like Macedonia (now, if Yugoslavia were still around, that would be different. Then you wouldn't need to know it).